Carole Fleck

Biography: As a senior editor for AARP Media, I cover personal finance issues, the economy, older worker issues, retirement planning and other news affecting people 50-plus.

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Carole Fleck 'sPosts

Your Average Yearly Cost to Own a Car: $9,122

Posted on 04/16/2013 by Carole Fleck | Money and Work | Comments

Bulletin Today | Money & SavingsWe may be holding onto our cars longer and forgoing buying new vehicles, but it’s still costing us more for our wheels. A new report by the auto club AAA says the average owner of a sedan who drives 15,000 miles a year pays $9,122 a year to own and operate that car. That comes to 60.8 cents per mile, about 2 percent more than last year. Driving a four-wheel drive SUV? Then you’re shelling out $11,599 a year. Smaller …

Protect Your Parents From Financial Fraud

Posted on 04/12/2013 by Carole Fleck | Money and Work | Comments

Bulletin Today | Money & SavingsUpdate: Here’s some news you’ll want to share with your parents to avoid the heartbreak of fraud and abuse at the hands of financial professionals. A new guide by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, called “Financial Self-Defense for Seniors,” has been developed to help older adults understand the designations, certifications and fiduciary responsibilities (which require them to act in the best interest of their client) of financial experts. Some so-called designations are nothing more than marketing tools, the board …

Get Your Tax Day Freebies Here

Posted on 04/11/2013 by Carole Fleck | Money and Work | Comments

Bulletin Today | Money & SavingsUPDATED: Some of us may dread tax day, April 15, but it’s also a day to cash in on some freebies. This year, most of us are bringing home less in our paychecks, thanks to the expiration of the Social Security payroll tax break. Some of us may have given up little luxuries, like our daily run to the coffee shop, now that the payroll tax has returned to its traditional 6.2 percent rate. [Read: Tax tips every person over 50 should know] …

Changing Jobs? Beware of Bad Information About 401(k) Options

Posted on 04/8/2013 by Carole Fleck | Money and Work | Comments

Bulletin Today | Money & Savings | WorkAbout to change jobs? If you have a 401(k) account, you’re at risk of getting bad information when you ask the company managing your retirement plan about your options. Turns out that, in some cases, the people who give advice over the phone push departing workers toward rolling over their 401(k)s into a privately owned individual retirement account (IRA) that the investment company sells. What these plan providers also don’t disclose to workers are the fees associated with that move or other …

Jobs Climate Slows But Jobless Rate Falls for Older Workers

Posted on 04/5/2013 by Carole Fleck | Money and Work | Comments

Bulletin Today | WorkA spring slowdown may be in store on the jobs front. Companies added a scant 88,000 employees to payrolls in March — the weakest hiring in nearly a year and deeply below economists’ expectations. But the unemployment rate that dipped slightly for all workers last month fell more dramatically for older adults, the government reported Friday. The jobless rate for workers age 55-plus slid to 5.5 percent in March from 5.8 percent the month before. Among men in that age group, …

Cost of Dementia Tops $157 Billion

Posted on 04/3/2013 by Carole Fleck | Money and Work | Comments

Bulletin Today | Caregiving | Money & Savings | Personal HealthNearly one in five of us boomers will develop Alzheimer’s disease or some other form of dementia in our lifetime. If that’s not scary enough, researchers have put a staggering figure on the diseases’ financial burden. A new study published in the April 4 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine says dementia costs more than heart disease or even cancer — between $157 and $215 billion annually. And that was based on the prevalence of the disease in 2010, …